MAY DAY MARCHERS MARK INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY

New York City

NEW YORK CITY, May 1 — May Day 2010 was a great day for the working class in NYC. Workers involved in class struggle against the bosses were a highlight of the spirited march in Manhattan and at three dinners throughout the city, which were attended by over 600 people. Stella D’Oro strikers, now PLP members, spoke at the dinners along with students involved in fighting the budget cuts in their schools

Several of these students and workers decided to join the Party, after having seen the multi-racial unity in the May Day activities and how PL’ers actively fought alongside them against the bosses in the spread of communist ideas, especially through the distribution of CHALLENGE.

Particularly outstanding this May Day was the participation and leadership of the youth who organized the march and the dinners, which bodes well for the growth of Progressive Labor Party. All told over 5,000 CHALLENGES were distributed, and received enthusiastically.

Comrades and friends led chants all along the route, calling for multi-racial worker unity and communist revolution to destroy capitalism, a system built on racism, sexism, police brutality and exploitation.

At all three dinners speakers clearly explained the state of the bosses’ crisis-ridden world and how workers, students and soldiers were beginning to step up to the plate to fight the misery it has produced, citing communism as the only answer. Other speakers described the history of May Day, born in the 1886 general strike for the 8-hour day in Chicago.

As always the food was excellent amid some super entertainment. Skits and songs prevailed throughout. At one dinner “What’s Going On” was sung along with a beautiful rendition of “Bella Ciao.” The walls at the dinner sites were decorated with vintage front pages from past CHALLENGES.

All the dinners closed with the singing of the international working-class anthem, The Internationale. Workers, students and soldiers, inspired by the day’s events, vowed to return to their factories, transit barns, barracks, schools and campuses more determined than ever to fight this murderous system with the only solution: the battle for communist revolution.J

Israel

A delegation of PLP’ers came to the May Day march in Tel-Aviv this year. We prepared more than 100 copies of the PL document “Road to Revolution IV” (in Hebrew translation), a May Day flier  about the need for communist revolution to smash fascism and apartheid and a flier in Hebrew and English for immigrant workers under the slogan, “Deport the Bosses, not the Workers!” We also carried CHALLENGES.

Several hundred workers, including several dozen immigrant workers, also marched. However, it was organized by middle-class liberals and their revisionist (phony leftist) allies in the “Communist” Party who shouted reformist and trade-union slogans, avoiding the words “revolution” and “communism” like the plague. They also restricted most post-march speeches at the rally to reformist and liberal politicians. Almost no workers were given the stage.

Nonetheless we came forward with our fliers and leaflets to openly call for a workers’ communist revolution. We were the only ones who talked with the immigrant workers, who were blatantly ignored by the reformists and the liberals. While our materials and slogans scared the living hell out of the liberals, we were openly welcomed by some of the workers who were looking for a more militant answer to their problems. One worker — until recently a right-wing Zionist and now a left-leaning trade-union activist — phoned in after the march to say our May Day flier was spot-on!

Another comrade went to the May Day march in Nazareth, which was a standard “C”P reformist show, and raised our slogans there as well. We lacked a flier in Arabic, but still managed to distribute our materials among the Nazareth workers.

Next year we will struggle to organize an even larger group to bring communist politics to May Day.

A comrade in Israel-Palestine

Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES, CA, May 1 — Raising PLP’s red flags against the backdrop of tens of thousands of white shirts and flags of various nationalities, several
dozen students and workers formed PLP’s contingent in this year’s May Day march in downtown Los Angeles. In the wake of Arizona passing an openly fascist immigration law, many angry workers marched. Our enthusiastic group created a visible alternative to the pro-ruling-class organizers of the march who called for immigration reform that would lead to long indentured servitude for immigrants. PLP called on workers from around the world to unite, fight back against deportations, borders and racism, and to build a revolutionary movement for communism.

This year the PLP contingent was organized and led mainly by young students and workers from Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay area. Along with veteran comrades and many friends, we made quite a presence. Throughout the march workers responded well to our chants. Several workers decided to join our contingent, wear our red shirts and carry our red flags. One worker, with his own megaphone, joined our group during the march, repeating our chants and encouraging others to do so. These workers expressed interest in our communist politics and asked to stay in touch with us. We distributed 1,500 leaflets and about 900 CHALLENGES. We left the march energized and invigorated for a coming year of struggle.

At our dinner, following the march we were able to express that enthusiasm and the specifics of Progressive Labor Party’s line:  “May Day is OUR day, a day to talk about workers’ struggles and workers’ power!” “More than ever, we need to see the world as it really is… cut-backs, unemployment, wars… The Progressive Labor Party has a plan to work with industrial workers, transportation workers, soldiers… and we take this very seriously.” “Every day things remind me more and more of fascist Germany. We cannot sit back and let fascism grow. We must fight back!”

A multi-racial group of over 60 workers, students and teachers joined with the Party to celebrate the international workers’ holiday, May Day. We all met up after marching to eat and celebrate with our comrades. We had music, poetry and discussion alongside speeches describing the world situation, the history of May Day and the things our comrades are going through right now at work, at home or at school. Everyone who came agreed: this year more than ever it is so important to be a part of a fighting organization like PLP. Capitalism’s attacks are becoming more reminiscent of fascism every day and we must stand up and fight back as a unified force. We are reinvigorated by the energy and determination of our new young leadership and look forward to the potential for growth in the years to come. J

Texas

 FT. WORTH, TX — May Day celebrations in our city were a huge success. Our day began with us preparing to bring communist ideas to the city’s immigration march. We printed flyers that connected immigration, unemployment and imperialist war to capitalism and made signs that read “Smash the Border” as we waited for friends from around the city, out of state, and from other countries to arrive.

The city’s liberal misleaders organized the march, and had no intention of making this a day about workers’ power. Among the speakers were the city’s mayor and the Chief of Police. The main thrust of the event was to attack the recent racist immigration law passed in Arizona guaranteeing racial profiling and to promote Obama’s “Comprehensive Immigration Reform,” which is equally racist. Nowhere in any of the speeches was May Day acknowledged as an international workers’ day. Their calls for “comprehensive immigration reform now!” and to rally around the American flag were contrasted with our flyer calling for unity among the international working class in the face of increasing attacks from the bosses.

We distributed 500 flyers and close to 70 CHALLENGES. As the march commenced, its organizers led chants like “Si se Puede!” We handed out chant sheets to everyone in the vicinity and with our bullhorn began leading more militant chants like “Las luchas obreras no tienen fronteras!” (Workers’ struggles have no borders!) and “Abajo con banderas, afuera con fronteras!” (Down with [bosses’] flags, smash all borders!). We connected the dots of capitalist exploitation further, chanting, “War in Iraq means… Fight back, and Racist unemployment means… fight back!”

Before, during and after the march we met up with old friends and made some new ones. One example was a student of one of our comrades who had come to the march with a local janitors’ union. At first he was hesitant to take a flyer; he wasn’t sure what he thought about attacking capitalism as the main problem in the world. After a lengthy discussion, pointing out the difference between the nationalist, pro-capitalist politics of the march’s organizers and the internationalist, working-class politics in the flyer, he took one. He also took a CHALLENGE.

As the march came to an end, we regrouped for our PL dinner. Two months of planning paid off as friends and co-workers began showing up. Our event was truly an international experience as we had friends in attendance not only from around the state and country, but from as far away as Guatemala and Turkey.

We had a barbeque that was prepared by a Pl’er and a long-time friend who stepped up and has become more committed despite his initial disagreements with the Party’s ideas.  Others brought side dishes, and by the time everyone arrived we had more than enough food. We ate and talked politics for an hour and then everyone made their way indoors for speeches and music.

People filled the living and dining room to hear the welcoming speech and the history of May Day. A woman new to our club gave the welcome and May Day history, emphasizing both the internationalism of May Day and of PLP. Her speech was followed by three more: a report on the international situation, a speech about where the real power to change the world lies and a final speech about commitment to the Party. A comrade who has been working to improve his ability to translate Party literature translated for our friends from Latin America. The speeches were followed by applause and some words from our international friends who discussed the history of May Day in Turkey.

We ended with a music program that included both original songs and some PL classics. A new song about CHALLENGE, the communist paper, got the audience laughing. This was followed by an improv performance of Bella Ciao. An original reggae song about the Party’s line got the audience singing along and was a major hit. We ended by singing the Internationale in English, Spanish and Turkish!

Although the attendance was a bit smaller than last year’s, many of the guests commented that the quality was much better. We are trying to keep the momentum from the planning for this year’s May Day alive, by continuing to write and record our Party music and to document all the speeches. We plan to put all the speeches and music onto CDs for friends who were not able to attend. J

Seattle

SEATTLE, May 8 — The reformist May Day rally on May 1st attracted a crowd of 10,000 people. PLP members marched with a contingent of 30 university students and staff in preparation for a student strike the following Monday. (see page 8).

For the past three years, a contingent of this school’s students and workers has been absent from the May Day march. It was good this year to see such a large contingent arrive, with militant signs in hand, ready to march. This May Day march, under leadership of the Catholic Church and the Democratic Party, always threatens to be dragged into the doldrums of pure nationalist, flag-waving reformism.

Students and campus workers, already mobilized to fight against the racist budget cuts and tuition hikes at the campus, saw the need to bring their militancy to it. For many of the students the idea of marching on May Day wasn’t particularly intimidating. It had simply never occurred to them to do it, a result of the capitalist indoctrination of the university system itself. Now they want to go back next year.

While reform chants like “si se puede” (yes, we can) could not be contained, the university contingent did bring a more militant force to the march. A comrade’s coworker marched for the first time, bringing along his young daughter. School custodians marched alongside students and graduate student workers, and nobody showed up waving American flags. At the end of the march when three Nazi knuckleheads showed up to antagonize and intimidate the marchers, the students and workers fought back. A young woman in the group, energized by the chants, took the bullhorn to continue a verbal assault on the racists and their police protectors. 

After the march some students and a comrade’s coworker and his family came to our May Day BBQ. Informal discussions were had all around regarding the march, the international marches, what they mean and where we are going as a class. We listened to the Internationale during the presentation of a special May Day cake made by a coworker’s wife and when the night was over two new people took CHALLENGES.

The march proved the perfect lead-in to the student strike on Monday in which custodians once again came out, despite threats of termination, to support students and graduate students (see p. 8). This week of events shows the need for workers and students to unite to fight back, smash capitalism and build a mass communist PLP. J

Indiana

INDIANAPOLIS, IN — We celebrated May Day with industrial, service and educational workers and students. One comrade opened the event explaining why the May Day dinner was important for our class. Another comrade presented the history of the international communist movement from 1945-1965, reviewing its ups and downs. The high point was how Stalin and the communist-led anti-fascist struggle defeated Nazism and Japanese fascism during World War II, the low point being the revisionist (phony leftist) Khruschev leadership restoring capitalism in the Soviet Union.

PLP was born out of the global class struggles and today is trying to rebuild the international communist movement.

Workers were encouraged to join the Party and help spread the  revolutionary ideas of communism and revolution to our working-class brothers and sisters so that we can build a new society and world free of racism, sexism, and imperialist war. We closed the celebration with everyone singing the communist Internationale.